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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

"I'm feeling shrimpy," I say to the Cynthia, the vendor at Dry Dock Fish at my local farmer's market, as she packs up the fresh shrimp I had just selected. I guess some of you loyal readers may have notice that I have a little thing for southern cuisine. Once in a long while I'll take a trip down to the famed Los Angeles Farmer's Market and one the little food stalls I like to frequent is a place called The Gumbo Pot. Louisiana-style southern cooking. I usually get myself a shrimp po'boy (a sub-style sandwich) with a cup of rice and gumbo. Mmmm... I've been meaning to make a version of the po' boy for quite a while, but I've just never gotten a chance to.

So when I had purchased the shrimp that little voice in the head began to whisper, "po' boy, po' boy, po' boy." Sweet! You can read a little of the history of this delectable sandwich on its wikipedia page (here), which also known as a poor boy. As much as I love the traditional way of making the po'boy, I wanted to put a little twist to it. A California twist. Traditionally, it consists of deep-fried breaded meat or seafood with lettuce, tomato, and a remoulade sauce. My version consists of baked-breaded seafood, spinach leaves, tomato, and my own rémoulade.

I peeled and deveined the shrimp. If you can get them already shelled and deveined, go for it. It'll save you time. Covered them in flour, an egg wash and panko crumbs, you know my usually way breading, and baked in the oven for 10-13 minutes. While that baked, I made the simple rémoulade sauce and prepared the spinach, tomato and bread. For the sauce, I finally was able to use the Emeril's horseradish mustard I had gotten a few months back courtesy of Foodbuzz and Emeril. You can simply use dijon mustard and horseradish, if you can't find that brand. I also didn't have the traditional french bread rolls, so I used some good ol' sliced bread (i.e. Nature's Pride 12-grain bread).

For this, I brought out trusty ol' Georgie. But you can toast them like you would a grilled cheese sandwich. Here's a neat trick to get that pressed sandwich look from a skillet. Take a plate and place it flat on top of the sandwich. Put a 12 ounce canned good, of any kind, on the plate to apply pressure. This will give you that "pressed" sandwich look just minus the grill marks. Then flip the sandwich and do the same thing.

I assembled the sandwich. Rémoulade on both slices of bread, placed the spinach and tomato on one and 6 perfectly baked shrimp on the other. Place the tomato side to form the sandwich and grilled away. I had a couple shrimp left to I just ate those like a appetizer with some of the rémoulade sauce I had left, which can be used as a dip as well. You can see a dollop of the sauce on that tomato slice inthe photos.

Come to think of it...in many ways, it looks like a panini, too. A panini-po' boy hydrid? Either way, this was so freakin' good! You can serve this with a side of chips, fries, salad or soup. Or even a cup of rice and gumbo. Anyway, I think I've babbled long enough. I'll let the recipe and photos speak for themselves. Bon appetite!!

In three separate dishes for the breading station.
1. flour, seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika.
2. egg and milk beaten together, season with a pinch of salt.
3. panko crumbs, seasoned with a little salt.

Bread each shrimp. 1, 2, then 3 in that order and place them on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Baked for 10-13 minutes until tender and slightly white and pink. Flip when half way to give the other side an even cooking.

Assemble the sandwich. Spread the rémoulade on both slices of bread. Place the spinach, then the tomato on one. When the shrimp is cooked, on the other 4-8 shrimp on the other half of the sandwich. Top with the tomato half and place on the grill or press. Cook until bread is toasted for roughly 5 minutes.

Cut the sanwiches in half on a diagonal and serve warm with a side of soup, salad, chips or fries.

For cooking on a skillet:
On medium heat, toast the sandwich like you would a grilled cheese sandwich for roughly 5 minute each side. To get the "pressed" look, place a plate flat over with a 12 oz canned good, of any kind on top to apply pressure.